Content’s Coming Wave: Video

November 16, 2017 - 3 minutes read

On our blog we aim to highlight the cutting trends in content and social media strategy. We cover a wide range of content vehicles, and today we are going to focus on video. Unfortunately, video marketing has a bit of bad rep. While production costs are manageable, even for small businesses, many professionals in the corporate space are turned off by the tone and branding implications of video content. Here’s the one statistic that underlies why video is necessary in a diversified content portfolio; video is expected to be responsible for 80 percent of web traffic by 2019.

Beyond trends that cite it as the dominant mode in web content, marketers report stellar B2C engagement when they implement video into their content. Video content increases click-through rates in email campaigns by over 200 percent, and when embedded in homepages, conversions are up as much as 80 percent. What these numbers show us is that a less formal approach has real sway with consumers who come to the web for a more relaxed experience.

The above numbers offer a data-driven argument for why video is important in 2017 and beyond. But, in case you’re worried that maybe the ROI isn’t there for video, consider this; more than 50 percent of marketing professionals think video offers the strongest ROI by content type.

Hopefully by now you are convinced of video’s return, so let’s get down to some brass tacks best practices. Engaging video should be short, HubSpot reports that over half of content videos are under two minutes. Taking this a step further, it’s important to understand people have channel-specific attention spans and will be willing to engage your content for varying amounts of time accordingly. Instagram videos, for example, should clock in at under 30 seconds. Meanwhile, you’re safe with a two-minute clip on YouTube. Moving from length to tone, video is ideal for building brand identity. It’s one of the few forms of multi-dimensional content, allowing you to layer your intended tone in voice, graphics, and call-to-action.

We hope the above stats and guidance steer you towards a smart and interactive video strategy. It’s the future of digital engagement so staking your presence now will be paramount to your cyber future.